Kimberly A. French

Colorado State University | CSU · Department of Psychology

The relationship between social support and work–family conflict is well-established, but the notion that different forms, sources, and types of social support as well as contextual factors can alter this relationship has been relatively neglected. To address this limitation, the current study provides the most comprehensive and in-depth examinatio...

The current study investigates differential relationships between challenge and hindrance stressors and metabolic risk factors using data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS II). Guided by the challenge–hindrance stressor model and the allostatic load model, we test two theoretically driven paths: a direct ph...

A sizable body of research has established work-family conflict and its nomological network. Despite decades of research, we have yet to form a precise understanding of what happens when a conflict arises. The current research addresses this question using a growth modeling, episodic approach. We use stressor-strain and allostatic load theories to...

Many working adults manage joint work and family responsibilities and turn to supports offered at work and in the home to help manage these roles successfully. We review the current evidence on supports for improving work–life outcomes, including informal support from people at work and at home as well as formal organizational and national policies...

We review the design features of work-family/nonwork conflict research that incorporates the passage of time (i.e., lagged, longitudinal, experience sampling). Findings indicate that although the number of studies that incorporate time in their design has increased in recent years, time-based design features such as the length of time between data...

Although previous research shows work-to-family conflict detracts from parenting time, extant literature offers little theoretical guidance or empirical data regarding when or why parents make up for time deficits created by work-to-family conflict. This study draws on action-regulation theory to examine when and under what conditions parents are m...

Emotional exhaustion has severe consequences for organizations and employees, with the current study demonstrating long-reaching effects on the home domain and family members. We integrate social cognitive theory with spillover and crossover. We propose that parents’ emotional exhaustion crosses over to their adolescents, increasing emotional exhau...

Advice is often given to junior scholars in the field of organization science to ostensibly facilitate their career success. In this commentary, we discuss insights from 19 elite scholars (i.e., Fellows and top journal editors) about the advice they received–and, often, did not follow–throughout their careers. We highlight some of the pitfalls from...

The management of the daily rhythm of work and childrearing, two central responsibilities of working fathers, has received limited research attention. Drawing from an expanded self‐regulation perspective, this study seeks to understand the within‐person depletion and compensation mechanisms that explain how fathers' daily work experiences spillover...

Faculty members are continually confronted with a multitude of activities among which they must divide their time. Prior research suggests that while men and women academics spend the same number of weekly hours working, women tend to expend more time on teaching and service relative to men while men expend more time on research relative to women....

We develop and validate a flexible work arrangements scale designed for use with shift workers. Consistent with research on the benefits of flexibility and nature of shift work, the scale conceptualizes flextime as predictability and control over the timing of work. The scale includes four components relevant to the experience of flextime in shift...

Our review highlights key contributions to the work‐family literature, including research published in Personnel Psychology. We review foundational key constructs (e.g., work‐family conflict), theories (e.g., boundary management), and methodology and measurement issues (e.g., episodic versus levels approaches) at the intersection of work and family...

This study uses a life course stress and attachment framework to examine the relationship between childhood psychological maltreatment and adulthood work interference with family (WIF) and family interference with work (FIW). We analyze longitudinal survey data across 20 years collected in the Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) study...

The present research examines diurnal patterns of work-family conflict episodes in a sample of 106 working adults collected every two hours over three days. Using boundary theory, we explore the timing of work-family conflict throughout the day and examine daily and weekly transitions as predictors of work-family conflict occurrence. We contrast tw...

Transitioning into leadership remains a distinct, common career experience that may have implications for employee health and wellbeing, yet these effects are not well understood. We draw upon role theory (role transitions and role expansion) to frame leadership as a dynamic career phenomenon with implications that change as individuals become soci...

Working sole mothers (i.e., nonpartnered women who work) may experience elevated family demands that impose barriers to pursuing health behaviors during their daily leisure time. We aimed to map the process through which evening family demands influence leisure‐time health behaviors in this priority population of employees, in an effort to identify...

The coronavirus pandemic resulted in national lockdown orders, followed by employment changes to reduce labor costs. We assess how health varied for hospitality workers due to the lockdown (i.e., comparing health a month before to a month after), employment change (i.e., comparing those with loss vs. no change), and employee response (i.e., more jo...

Tolerance intervals provide a bracket intended to contain a percentage (e.g., 80%) of a population distribution given sample estimates of the mean and variance. In random‐effects meta‐analysis, tolerance intervals should contain researcher‐specified proportions of underlying population effect sizes. Using monte carlo simulation, we investigated the...

One common challenge for faculty is decisions regarding the allocation of time across research, teaching, and service tasks. We investigate faculty time allocation among typical faculty members using latent profile analysis. We examine associations between profile membership and gender and time spent in housework, childcare, and eldercare. We also...

We used qualitative and quantitative data from 70 individuals at different life stages to examine work–family management strategies adopted by men and women across 4 career–family centrality profiles: career-centric, family-centric, dual-centric, and other-centric. Participant interview responses were analyzed using QSR NVivo Version 10. We used a...

When conducting experience sampling studies, one important decision that researchers must make is the method by which surveys are administered. Dozens of reviews and recommendations cover types of response modes, including paper and pencil, online survey, and interactive voice response. However, few studies have empirically tested differences acros...

Through the lens of boundary theory, we systematically examined cultural context as a moderator of relationships between work-family conflict and its key theoretical predictors (work/family hours and work/family demands) and outcomes (job satisfaction, family satisfaction, and life satisfaction). We used 2 different approaches to examine cultural v...

Rationale: Research using the challenge-hindrance stressor framework shows hindrance stressors tend to have detrimental affective and work-related outcomes, whereas challenge stressors have relatively more salutary affective and work-related outcomes. The extent to which this pattern extends to health behaviors, such as sleep, is unknown. Objecti...

The purpose of this chapter is to provide an in-depth overview of adopting a meta-analytical approach to understand work-family interface from a cross-cultural perspective. After reading the chapter, the readers are expected to gain a thorough understanding on three key aspects: 1.) the potential research questions a meta-analysis on global work an...

There is growing interest among organizational researchers in tapping into alternative sources of data beyond self-reports to provide a new avenue for measuring behavioral constructs. Use of alternative data sources such as wearable sensors is necessary for developing theory and enhancing organizational practice. Although wearable sensors are now c...

Promoting the health and wellbeing of an aging and age-diverse workforce is a timely and growing concern to organizations and to society. To help address this issue, we investigated the relationship between age and subjective wellbeing by examining the moderating role of mindfulness in two independent studies. In study 1, trait mindfulness was exam...

Research aimed at understanding the intersection of employees' work and family lives has blossomed over the past few years, and, in more recent times, has begun to have an increasingly global focus. Conducting research in diverse cultural settings is important given that work and family dynamics are entrenched in larger societal contexts, such as g...

This experimental switching replications design study examined the effectiveness of a brief mindfulness-based training intervention that included a one-hour mindfulness-based workshop followed by 13 days of behavioral self-monitoring (BSM) in an attempt to reduce work–family conflict. The intervention increased participants' mindfulness and decreas...

Abstract Purpose Using resource drain and social cognitive theory frameworks, this study investigates the process through which parent time and energy resource drain relates to adolescent core self-evaluation. Parent–child interactive and routine activities and parental social support are tested as mediators. Methodology Data are reported by mother...

The current study examined whether a work–family culture measure can be used across diverse income groups. We compared measure structure and criterion-related validity for low-income (n = 327) and high-income (n = 400) samples. Differences in measurement structure between the two groups were examined using measurement invariance, and differences in...

Marissa Mayer made headlines when she became only the 20th female CEO of a Fortune 500 firm in 2012 while also the first woman to take such a position while pregnant. Another firestorm of coverage commenced when she returned to work after two weeks of leave following the birth of her baby. The purpose of the current study is to analyze media and pu...

The Teamwork KSA Test has been a welcome addition to the practitioner's selection toolkit as well as a useful measure for teamwork researchers. We analyzed the psychometric properties of the Teamwork KSA Test and recognized correlates of the construct using three samples of working individuals recruited through a university (N=241, N=230, N=332) an...

In this chapter we discuss the ways in which work–family researchers can better include underrepresented populations in work–family scholarship. Extant research on five example populations is reviewed: low-income workers; immigrants; lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals; single parents; and formerly incarcerated individuals. Methodol...

Work–family conflict continues to be a topic of considerable interest to researchers and practitioners across the globe. In the current study, meta-analysis is used to compare cross-national mean differences in work-to-family conflict and family-to-work conflict across cultural, institutional , and economic aspects of context. No significant differ...

This chapter provides a historic overview of the work–family field from the 1970s through today. Several reviews and timelines are compiled to identify themes throughout each time period. To supplement published resources, interviews with prominent work–family scholars were conducted to identify key trends and issues, and to obtain a more personal...

Multilevel modeling is used to examine the impact of teamwork interest and group extraversion on group satisfaction. Participants included 206 undergraduates in 65 groups who were surveyed at the beginning and end of a requisite term-length group project for an upper-division university course. We hypothesized that teamwork interest and both extrav...